Europe

Home page

Europe

Wall Street bounces back from biggest weekly drop in 2013

23 April 2013 01:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. stocks managed to close higher in choppy trading on Monday after a week with biggest loss this year, as investors bought a dip and tech shares boosted the market, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index edged up 19.66 points, or 0.14 percent, to 14,567.17 points. The S&P 500 rallied 7.25 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,562.50 points. The Nasdaq Composite surged 27.49 points, or 0.86 percent, to 3,233.55 points.

The main stock indices opened slightly higher, but dipped into negative territory after the release of disappointing report on previously owned house sales.

Total U.S. existing-home sales declined 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million in March from a downwardly revised rate of 4.95 million in February, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. The fresh figures were lower than analysts' expectations of a rate of 5.03 million.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said Monday its national activity index decreased to minus 0.23 in March from 0.76 in February, indicating U.S. economic activity is below its historical trend.

Last week, Wall Street suffered its worst weekly loss of this year, hit by a plunge in commodity prices as well as lackluster economic data.

But the market regained momentum from tech shares. Apple shares rallied 2.08 percent to 398.67 U.S. dollars ahead of its quarterly earnings report due on Tuesday.

Netflix shares jumped 6.73 percent to 174.37 dollars. The online-video provider continued to soar in after-hours trading as it posted its first-quarter profit which beat market expectation after the closing bell.

Investors tended to take the deep drop in last week as a buying opportunity since gold prices extended gains. Gold future for June delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 25.6 dollars, or 1.83 percent, to settle at 1,421.2 dollars per ounce on Monday.

Wall Street was also bolstered by rising Japanese stock market on Monday, with Nikkei 225 ending 1.89 percent higher, driven by G20 approval of Japan's monetary stimulus program. The CBOE Volatility Index, considered the fear gauge of Wall Street, dropped 3.87 percent to 14.39.

In corporate news, Caterpillar, the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, reported first- quarter profit of 880 million dollars, down 44.5 percent year on year. But the company's shares reversed early losses and closed higher at 82.71 dollars.

For the week, over one-third of the S&P 500 companies including Apple, Qualcomm and Exxon Mobil are due to report earnings.

In other markets, light, sweet crude for June delivery gained 92 cents, or 1.04 percent, to settle at 89.19 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. Brent for June delivery was up 74 cents, or 0.74 percent, to close at 100.39 dollars a barrel.

The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies on Monday. In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.3059 dollars from 1.3062 dollars of the previous session. While the dollar bought 99. 41 Japanese yen, lower than 99.55 yen in the previous session.